Rockets have big rally but fall; OKC up 2-0 in series

Share this:

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Rockets took Oklahoma City’s best shot and it was a good one. It was not enough. They lost Jeremy Lin at halftime to a bruised chest muscle, but they overcame the loss. They had foul trouble. They struggled to shoot from distance. They trailed by 15.

Yet after they rallied all the way back despite everything, they could not close out the most unlikely of wins and headed home feeling as if they had left one get away.

The Rockets had made the repairs so desperately needed after the Game 1 blowout, turned to rookie Patrick Beverley in his first start and when pushed to the brink made a stunning fourth quarter comeback to the lead. With the game on the line in the final minutes, however, the Thunder took over one final time, surging to 105-102 win to send the first-round series to Houston with Oklahoma City up 2-0.

Patrick Beverley and the Rockets kept it close against the Thunder but couldn’t close out the game. (Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle)

“Oh, most definitely,” James Harden said when asked if the Rockets felt as if they let a win slip away. “We had a few opportunities late in that game, the last three or four minutes, to capitalize on couple buckets and we didn’t. There’s just a few possessions we could have had back that cost us the game.”

The game seemed nearly as unlikely to come down to a few possessions when the Thunder led by 15 with 9:24 left as when Oklahoma City romped in Game 1. But from the start, the Rockets had made corrections needed to move the ball offensively and match up defensively, with Beverley all over the place, including under Russell Westbrook’s skin in one particularly feisty first-half exchange.

Beverley, who had 16 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, rarely leaving the court other than in his third-quarter foul trouble, infuriated Westbrook when he went for a steal while the Thunder guard was calling time out. They bumped knees and Westbrook pounded the scorers’ table before glaring at Beverley. But in many ways, the Rockets rookie had set a tone.

“It’s the playoffs,” Westbrook said, showing no signs of residual anger. “You can’t help but get excited.”

Even with Kevin Durant sensational in the first half, the Thunder could lead by just two. The Rockets were still within two when Beverley picked up fouls on consecutive plays in the third quarter and headed to the bench. The Rockets quickly took the lead, but then went four minutes without scoring in a 13-0 Oklahoma City run. When the Rockets began the fourth quarter missing three 3-pointers, the Thunder easily took a 15-point lead.

“Our team is a young team and we’re not a perfect team by any stretch of the imagination, but they’ll fight,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “They’re a bunch of scrappers and they’ll go out there and fight you for it.”

They fought back enough to lead by four after a Carlos Delfino 3-pointer with 3:27 left. But with the Rockets leading by two, the Thunder took over. Durant sank a 3 for his only basket of the fourth quarter and moments later, he found Thabo Sefolosha for another 3 as Parsons got tangled up with Kendrick Perkins as he tried to close out.

“Clearly obvious what Perkins did to me,” Parsons said. “He grabbed me with two hands. I couldn’t go out there and contest Sefolosha. It’s part of the game.”

Harden sank one of two free throws to cut the lead to three, but with 31.9 seconds left, Serge Ibaka hit from 19 feet and the Thunder finally had a lead the Rockets could not overcome.

Yet, having come so far since Sunday, as the Rockets lamented that it was not far enough, they took it as an indication that they had grown ready to go the rest of the way.

“Definitely, this is one we could’ve have gotten on their homecourt,” forward Chandler Parsons said. “We fought hard and we played really well. A lot of things didn’t go our way. I think it gives us confidence going forward that we can definitely beat these guys and we’re definitely not scared of them. We figured out a lot that worked on offense and defensively.

“It’s frustrating and it really hurts, but you have to take some positive out of it. It’s a long series.”

No one was calling this “a long series” on Sunday, and that is far from assured now. But after all the Rockets battled and overcame on Wednesday, they had erased at least some doubts and showed no signs of any of their own.

“It is frustrating,” Beverly said. “But at the same time, we know we can do something.”